James R. Mirick sets the record straight on things he cares about

Go Green with Motorcycles, Part 3

Here’s some additional thoughts on substituting some great two-wheeled time for time in your rolling cage, excuse me, your car. This assumes that a jump to 45 – 70 MPG isn’t enough to make your mouth water, that you need some other excuse to dive in and ride.

There is a growing awareness that it is in fact possible to do your commute by scooter or motorcycle, read a little more about it in the Rush Hour Rambling blog, interesting and well-written and based in Minneapolis.

Then, there is the National Ride to Work Day movement, based in Proctor, Minnesota. This year’s is 7/18/07, be there (on two wheels) or be square! The hard impact of RTW Day is estimated to be 60,000 gallons of fuel saved, based on extrapolated reported participation nationwide. This translates into 15 million gallons of fuel saved for a year, if every day were like RTW Day. Wow.

Here’s a fun discussion of the psychological impact of motorcycle commuting in Southern California, not something I’d necessarily like to be involved in.

Finally, let me point out that another out-in-the-open option for tooling around town, in addition to motorcycles and scooters, is a motorcycle with a sidecar. This may be less intimidating to some people because now you don’t have to balance anything, and of course now you can take a passenger and / or bring home the bacon in bags in the sidecar — admittedly easier than strapping it on the bike. Sidecars also have panache in spades, and are firmly 1940s retro, which is currently stylistically in vogue. Hauling up to your local coffee shop in one of these will, believe me, stop the conversation right there.

A few firms make sidecars, including Harley, Royal Enfield, and Ural. The Harley sidecars are available only on a couple of their heavy touring bikes, not exactly the zippiest little numbers, and terrifically expensive. The Urals are copies of a 1943 BMW, updated slightly to modern standards, and assembled in Russia. C’mon now, doesn’t this look almost irrestable?